Blog Tour: That Which Stands Outside – Mark Morris

A new chiller from multi award winning author of over 50 novels, winner of the New York Festival Radio Award for Best Drama Special and Festival Radio Awards.

That Which Stands Outside is a horror novel inspired by Nordic folklore. After Todd Kingston rescues Yrsa Helgerson from muggers one rainy London night, their resulting friendship quickly develops into a romance. When Yrsa’s mother dies, Todd accompanies her back to her childhood home, an isolated Nordic island. The reception they receive there is one of suspicion and hostility. The islanders believe Yrsa to be a child of a mythic race called the Jötnar, a claim which Yrsa dismisses as superstitious nonsense. But as the island is rocked by a series of devastating events, Todd finds himself caught up in a terrifying battle, one which possibly threatens the future of the world itself.

Morris has written and edited over fifty novels, novellas, short story collections and anthologies. His script work includes audio dramas for Doctor Who, Jago & Litefoot and the Hammer Chillers series. His most recent work includes the Obsidian Heart trilogy (The Wolves of London, The Society of Blood and The Wraiths of War), the original Predator novel Stalking Shadows (co-written with James A. Moore), the official novelization of the Doctor Who60th anniversary special Wild Blue Yonder,new audio adaptations of the classic 1971 horror movie Blood on Satan’s Claw and the M.R. James ghost story A View From a Hill, a 30th anniversary short story collection Warts And All,and, as editor, the anthologies After Sundown, Beyond the Veil, Close to Midnight and Darkness Beckons. Blood on Satan’s Claw won the New York Festival Radio Award for Best Drama Special, and A View From a Hill won the New York Festival Radio Award for Best Digital Drama Program, and was also awarded Silver at the 2020 Audio & Radio Industry Awards. Mark has won two British Fantasy Awards, and has also been nominated for several Stokers and Shirley Jackson Awards.

My thoughts: set on a remote island off the coast of Iceland, this is a creepy and sinister horror thriller that reminded me why I hate pot holing and why when someone says “let’s go poke a bear” the correct response is to run very fast in the opposite direction.

There aren’t any actual bears here, but creepy gnome like creatures called jotnar – I know in some Nordic tales they’re more benevolent, but these ones are murderous and evil.

Todd’s girlfriend Yrsa is from this island and is the reason he, and then his brother, are there. Her mother’s died and they’ve gone over for the funeral. Then she asks if he thinks his brother Robin and his crew of builders would be willing to come over with their equipment and drill a massive hole into an underground cavern. In the dark, in the local cave system (Bear!!)

Horrible things start happening, beginning with an accident that leaves the victim speaking in an ancient version of the local language (Norse maybe?) and it all gets much worse from there on out. It’s bloody and brutal and Todd is terrified. Will anyone make it off the island alive? 

The writing is tense and gripping, even as things get more horrifying, I couldn’t stop reading. I love a good creepy book. And this is definitely that.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.